Public Schools Still Make Room for Art

Despite the obsession in the educational establishment with the three Rs, the great majority of public elementary and secondary schools still offer instruction in music and the visual arts, according to a 2009-10 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics. Among elementary schools, 94 percent offer music and 83 percent offer visual art classes. Among secondary schools the figures are 91 and 89 percent, respectively. On board to teach these subjects at most schools are full-time art specialists.

Look Out Below!

Here's a number you are going to see bandied about in the next few weeks, purporting to show how public schools are failing. Supposedly, only 75.5 percent of 9th graders in 2005-06 graduated from high school in 2008-09. That's the latest "averaged high school graduation rate," according to a new report released by the National Center for Education Statistics. By state the statistic varies from a high of 90.7 percent in Wisconsin to a low of 56.3 percent in Nevada.

Don't believe it. The first sign that this is a bogus measure is its tortured name. The second sign of bogosity is that the rate doesn't match reality--it is far below the 89.9 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds who actually have a high school diploma or GED (see table here).

The third sign that the "averaged high school graduation rate" is bogus is the methodology behind it, invented by morons. The rate is calculated by taking the number of high school graduates in a school district in a given year and dividing by the number of freshmen in the school district four years earlier. So, any student who moves out of a school district is counted as a dropout. That's why states with little migration have high "graduation" rates, and states with lots of migration have low "graduation" rates. Pure genius.

The Young Are Optimistic

Percentage who say it is very or somewhat likely that today's youth will have a better life than their parents, by age...

18 to 29: 57%
30 to 44: 45%
50 to 64: 36%
65 or older: 37%

Source: Gallup

Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead

Typically, older Americans are the ones most informed about the news. Yesterday's killing of Osama Bin Laden may have been the first Big News event in which the youngest generation was the first to know and spread the news to their peers in a whoosh of texting, Twittering, and Facebook posts.

On the East Coast, many older Americans were asleep when the news that Osama Bin Laden was dead burst onto millions of cellphones. It is likely that many did not hear the news until hours later when they collected their morning paper. There is no doubt that the audience for President Obama's late night remarks was decidedly youthful, as were the crowds that formed spontaneously in Washington, D.C. and New York.

Everyone under the age of, say, 25 has another reason besides their late night schedules and texting prowess to follow the news about Osama Bin Laden's killing so closely. Older generations have seen enemies come and go--Germans, Japanese, North Vietnamese, communists, Richard Nixon. For the younger generation, Osama Bin Laden was The Enemy. Now he's dead. This is their V-Day.

Death Row, 2010

Number of prisoners on death row: 3,260.
Number executed: 46

Source: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics

Jobs Lost During the Great Recession

The April issue of the Monthly Labor Review, released yesterday, describes job losses during the Great Recession industry by industry. As the overview states, "The downturn in employment accompanying the 2007-09 recession was notable for its prolonged length, for affecting an especially wide range of industries, and for being deeper than any other downturn since World War II."

Change in employment by industry, December 2007 — June 2009
Construction: -1,500,000
Financial activities: -785,000
Health care: +428,000
Leisure & hospitality: -454,000
Manufacturing: -2,000,000
Mining: -44,000
Professional & business services: -1,600,000
Retail trade: -1,000,000

The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that although the recession officially ended in June 2009, another 1.2 million jobs were lost in the following months until employment bottomed out in February 2010. The total number of jobs lost from the pre-recession peak until the February 2010 bottom: 8.8 million.

Fewer Journalists

The number of journalists is shrinking. An annual census of newsroom journalists in the United States, taken by the American Society of News Editors, finds many fewer journalists working at online and traditional newspapers today than a few years ago. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of journalists fell 26 percent--from the all-time high of 56,400 to just 41,600. The good news: between 2009 and 2010, the number of professional journalists grew by 100.

Born in the USA

Percentage of Hispanics who were born in the United States: 63%.

Source: Bureau of the Census, 2009 American Community Survey

Median Weekly Earnings

Median weekly earnings of full-time workers: $747.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010 Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey, Table 39

Fewer Have Employment-Based Health Insurance

Only 52 percent of workers aged 18 to 64 had employment-based health insurance benefits in their own name in 2009, down from 57 percent in 2000. Here is the percentage of workers who have employment-based health insurance in their own name, by size of firm...

Fewer than 10 employees: 25%
10 to 24 employees: 36%
25 to 99 employees: 59%
100 or more employees: 63%

Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute, The Impact of the 2007-2009 Recession on Worker's Health Coverage

First-Time Home Buyer Watch

Homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34, first quarter 2011: 50.3%

One way to see what lies ahead for the housing market is to track the percentage of 30-to-34-year-olds who own a home. This is the age group in which the majority of households typically become homeowners. The homeownership rate of the age group is the best indicator of trends in the housing market because these young adults are the nation's first-time home buyers. The annual homeownership rate of the age group has been greater than 50 percent since the Census Bureau first began to collect the information in 1982.

The quarterly homeownership rate of 30-to-34-year-olds has been above 50 percent in all but one quarter for the past 17 years. The last time it slipped below 50 percent was in the second quarter of 1994, when only 49.6 percent of 30-to-34-year-olds owned a home. The figure peaked at 58.0 percent in the 4th quarter of 2004. The quarterly number released today is uncomfortably close to falling below the 50 percent threshold.

Source: Bureau of the Census, Housing Vacancy Survey

Middle Class Is a Feeling

In today's New York Times, an Economix blog post notes that regardless of their actual income level, most Americans think they are middle class. This has long been true because "middle class" is not a statistical point on the income distribution but an attitude, a feeling, a sense of belonging to a fair system that works.

That's why it is alarming to see the latest numbers from the 2010 General Social Survey. When Americans are asked how their family income compares with other families, only 43 percent now feel that their income is average. This is the smallest percentage ever recorded by the General Social Survey and down from a peak of 59 percent in 1973.

Bet You Didn't Know

Percentage of doctor visits in which drugs are prescribed: 77%

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Ambulatory Medical Care Utilization Estimates for 2007

Median Age of Workers

The oldest and youngest workers (median age)...

Farmers and ranchers: 57.7
Food service counter attendants: 21.5

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished table, 2010 Current Population Survey

Medicare: Thumbs Up

Percentage of adults who think the quality of the health care they receive rates a 9 or 10 on a scale of 0 (worst) to 10 (best)...

Medicare recipients: 61%
Everyone else:  45%

Source: Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

Why the Nuclear Meltdown?

As noted in the post below, only 22 percent of households in the United States today are headed by married couples with children under age 18. This figure is down from a high of 45 percent in 1957--the peak year of the baby boom. Nuclear families now rank third in importance among household types, behind married couples without children at home (27 percent of households, most of them empty nesters) and people who live alone (also 27 percent).

A whole lot of demographic change has eroded the nuclear family. Once the stalwart of the American marketplace, nuclear families are now outnumbered and outspent by married couples without children at home. This is what happened to them:  

• Aging population As the large baby-boom generation aged into its fifties and sixties, empty nesters became more numerous than nuclear families.
• Higher education As more young adults went to college, they postponed marriage. The average age at first marriage has never been higher. 
• Smaller families As women have fewer children, they are spending fewer years raising them.
• Out-of-wedlock childbearing More than 40 percent of babies are born out-of-wedlock and--by definition--out of a nuclear family. 
• Divorce Once rare, divorce is now commonplace, breaking nuclear families into single-parent and single-person households.

Nuclear Meltdown

Percentage of American households headed by...

Nuclear families: 22%
People living alone: 27%

Note: Nuclear families are married couples with children under age 18.
Source: Bureau of the Census

Tick Tock

Today, the population of the United States will increase by 6,171 people.

Source: Census Bureau, U.S. Population Clock

Who Votes?

Percentage of citizens who voted in the 2008 presidential election, by race and Hispanic origin...

Non-Hispanic whites: 66.1%
Blacks: 64.7%
Hispanics: 49.9%
Asians: 48.0%

Source: Census Bureau, Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2008

Religious or Not

Percentage of Americans who say they are...

Very religious: 17%
Not religious: 18%

Source: General Social Survey